Published PCT Application Nos. WO 2006/060596, WO 2006/113543, and WO 2005/099482, by applicant, disclose methods for treating, processing, and separating food products, such as ground beef, into various components and/or the combination of various components into a single meat product having controlled amounts of fat and lean meat. The processing and handling of such food products involves the transporting of materials through pipes, fluorescent tubes, and conduits. A preferred material disclosed in such publications for transporting the food products is liquid carbon dioxide at an elevated pressure, which maintains the carbon dioxide as a liquid. Liquid carbon dioxide can have antimicrobial properties, particularly when combined with a corresponding quantity of water such that the two liquids, when maintained within a pressure vessel or series of interconnecting conduits and pressure vessels are arranged to allow the combining by mildly exothermic reaction of the two liquid compounds of H2O+CO2, which will yield→H2CO3 (carbonic acid). To supplement the antimicrobial effect of liquid carbon dioxide, methods and apparatus are continuously being sought to produce safe, sterilized food products, such as meat, and, in particular, cut up or ground meat.